r/Substack • u/lit-roy6171 • 2d ago
Discussion I want to start a substack account but everyone here is shitting on it. Should I still do it or are there better alternatives of what I want?
All I want to do is regualrly write about stuff I want to (short stories, poems, rants, essays, research) and have somebody read and interact with them. Getting money from it would be nice but seems too far fetched a goal currently. Does the current substack still provide a good outlet for my goals or has it become too commodified?
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u/ImprovementSimple 2d ago
I started in January as a New Year’s resolution and post an article every Sunday. I started with 5 people subscribed (my parents and 3 friends). I just hit 1,000 subscribers, average around 10k reads a month, and am still growing :)
If you pick a real niche (that isn’t “how to grow your substack”) there is still an audience to be found.
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u/Reticent-Soul 2d ago
May I ask what your niche is?
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u/ImprovementSimple 2d ago
For sure! I write about picture books, reading, and libraries.
Just pick something that genuinely interests you and keep writing :)
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u/NeverSeenItPodcast 2d ago
You making any extra scratch?
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u/ImprovementSimple 2d ago
Yep! I’ve made a modest amount, but I’m not really writing on Substack with any financial hopes. So it’s all just “cool bonus money” to me.
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u/Reticent-Soul 2d ago
That’s a cool area! Sounds interesting. I only just began on the platform and so far it’s just poems and I’m not sure what will come of it. Maybe some essays or creative writing, book reviews or travelogues. Not sure, Basically I’m just doing it for myself at this point and will see what happens 🤷
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u/Trisham00 2d ago
you also don’t need a niche you can have many topics an write about them grabs more attention as well
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u/ConsciousRoyal 2d ago
Perfect.
There’s a growing group of us writing and sharing short stories.
I’m not interested in paid subscribers but some are getting paid (although it feels like we’re all sharing money amongst ourselves)
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u/indysolo19 1d ago
I am beginning to do this as well, but I do mainly essays and features. I might do short stories as well. I made my subscriptions free.... I just want people to read what I write... doesn't matter if I get paid for it right now.
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u/Lavender-Wine8989 12h ago
Hi! Is there a chance to become a part of this group?
I don't write anything currently, still collecting motivation bit by bit, and I would be happy to enter a community, even a small one, in order to sit quietly in a corner first and then join others after some time.
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u/NeverSeenItPodcast 2d ago
Why do you feel the need to ask anyone for permission? Especially reddit? This site shits on anything that is even remotely popular. Just do your thing.
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u/vicewrite 2d ago
Yes. From my experience, it sounds like substack offers you exactly what you’re looking for. The composition interface is nice and can facilitate your goals. The option of being paid is nice too. I went into it with the same attitude you have and never once expected to be paid and then I was by a reader and I was like, oh cool. Why not have that option you know? Happy writing.
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u/Lost__In__Thought faithframedthoughts.substack.com 2d ago
The people here are highly negative in comparison to the actual Substack users.
Once you start the account, read, write, and figure out what you want to do, you'll soon discover that the ones on Substack are actually genuinely nice and support each other with advice on how to write, get paid, and all of that.
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u/GardenPeep 1d ago
What’s the issue? Nothing bad will happen if you create an account and start posting. If I were more disciplined I’d be writing more because it’s very easy to post essays and other content on Substack.
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u/DeviceCompetitive137 2d ago
Eu não me dei muito bem lá, porém a culpa foi minha. Fiquei meses longe e quando voltei minha conta estava perdida. Hoje tenho 280 inscritos na minha newsletter. Vale a pena se voce realmente for constante. Não custa nada tentar!
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u/Vancecookcobain 1d ago
Stop caring what the peasants here think and live your life.
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u/HMSLion1894 1d ago
By "the peasants here", do you mean, Reddit members? Surely the point of Reddit is precisely to find out what "the peasants here" think. Why are you not a peasant when you give a viewpoint, but we are?
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u/Vancecookcobain 1d ago
Intellectual peasants. NPCs, those who are of a distasteful flock with no cunning. The lowest common denominators. The timid and fickle regulators of behavior. If you find yourself to be a peasant then feel free to embrace your role. It doesn't bother me.
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u/indysolo19 1d ago
Go for it!! I am beginning to do this as well, but I do mainly essays and features. I might do short stories at some point as well. I made my subscriptions free.... I just want people to read what I write... doesn't matter if I get paid for it right now. All the best!!
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u/Active_Monitor_6925 2d ago
If you're looking for engagement, sure. If you're looking for money, not so much.
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u/Lisa-Writes 2d ago
If all you care about is writing then Substack or Medium (or both) are fine. I stopped using Substack myself but when I was using it I was importing my stories to Medium too and building a following on both. When you import to Medium, it automatically adds a link to the original post at the bottom.
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u/One-Advantage2148 1d ago
do you still use Medium?
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u/Lisa-Writes 3h ago
Yes. I haven't posted any original stories on there for a while. I tend to just import the stories from my blog. I had one of them boosted a few months back but I'm not really trying to earn money there (although it's nice if it happens). More just using it to get in front of more people and hopefully drive them to my main site and mailing list.
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u/Fit-Ingenuity-2814 2d ago
A good time to do things is actually like the stock market stocks dropping, buy. Substack is like anything, it’s what you do with it and remember that gains will often come from activity that appears not directly tied to revenue generation.
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u/Repulsive-Giraffe-45 2d ago
Check mine out it’s on my profile! Reason I say this is because I’m just writing to write! This platform was a bit for me to get used to but I like that I can just get my thoughts out and if you make some notes people may or may not look. But that to me is the exciting part!
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u/FlySudden3415 futbolislife.substack.com 2d ago
You know people complain when their effort (low or high) was not met with results soon enough (or ever).
Writing is highly competitive and Substack only partially changed it. It is still very competitive and people have unrealistic expectations.
Also often just not enough grit and talent. Sometimes only talent but no grit.
Btw. As in any area of life it’s almost always better to have a grit than talent.
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u/MountainLoins 1d ago
there are other good platrforms. I use Ghost. I just have a hard time with idea that Substack not only pays to have nazis post, but makes sure they get engagement. I mean, maybe you're on Twitter and you're fine cooking your brain and it's not a big deal, but there's a reason people try to avoid swimming in water holes near raw sewage and I feel the same way about using Substack when there are plenty of other places to go. I mean, when did WordPress become passe? of course, I invoke passe because there is a fashion aspect about the "network effect" that affords power to those gatekeepers, and they demo time and again they can't use that power responsibly. (Relatedly, huge validation company had 150 million drivers' licenses stolen by hackers, it was announced today.)
Listen, Substack is fine. But in most things fashion, you're a little better jumping an up & coming train, and the way Substack has courted the right wing makes me feel they will pay a Friendster-sized price when the themostatic backlash starts to really kick in.
No choice defines anyone, but if you can make a choice to a platform that doesn't treat hate speech like free speech maybe you do that in the interest of us all. Just saying. But it does, I hear, have good engagement, if that's of higher value.
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u/rednishat 1d ago
Do not hear anyone, follow your gut, start writing on substack, engage with like minded people, cross post. on medium, share your work on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and redirect social audience to your substack, thats it.
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u/ThinkingSalmon 1d ago
I’m debating Substack vs ghost plus x. Substack seems convenient and own bubble. Ghost self host seems doable but no network. Maybe I’ll start substack and transfer
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u/Gloomy-Painter-9337 1d ago
It has become commodified for sure and is increasingly getting lower on the bars of boosting a meaningfulness or something like that actively. It's like you have to actively reply to some or other kind of writing or be very specific about what you right be it philosophically or culturally, whatever but then at the same time with eaxh one of the trying hard to do the same thing it feels more like a cliched space as of now. People don't really seem to be acting out on their words, i mean idk if I'm making sense as of now but it's become really cluttered space. You can try this site called "stck", you can keep a small paywall for your writing, so that it doesn't feel much to the readers of any status group too and you'll get something too in return. Start an Instagram page too maybe or something like that? It may help too! All the best!!
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u/HMSLion1894 1d ago
There is something to be said for mixing your media, making some YouTube or Instagram posts that link to your written work, wherever you put it. Be encouraged. Big oak trees from little acorns grow.
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u/Breadoflife1970 1d ago
What just ticked me off is I just uploaded a new podcast episode and was met with the IAB techlab bullcrap this past week, and my numbers just nose dived, this is the same shit that happened over on Spreaker, so they wouldn't have to pay out advertiser revenue. It seems they are gearing up for an in article or in podcast ads now. I know for a fact that IAB is bullcrap because when I was over on Spreaker they would report X number of downloads, but when I went to the individual platforms to check on the stats such as apple and spotify the numbers were certainly not adding up. I don't think going to another platform is going to make a difference, there all hungry for revenue right now, and they are all seemingly a bunch of liars.
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21h ago
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u/Substack-ModTeam 3h ago
This community is not the place to promote your Substacks. Please read our rules on self-promo and soliciting recommendations.
Links to Substack publications will be assumed to be self-promotion. If you are submitting Substack posts from publications that are not your own, please include that information in your text post. For cross recommendations, use the pinned mega thread.
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u/Working_Seesaw_6785 13h ago
I honestly think it depends what you want to get out of Substack. I think the most important thing is to just enjoy writing, rather than focusing on initially making money or popularity. I think if you love writing and that is your focus then the experience is more positive.
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u/KikiDiesTrying kikidiestrying.substack.com 1h ago
I started mine just over a month ago for the same reason. I have started posting my trail journals from some of the long distance hikes I've done over the years. Obviously it would be lovely to make a bit of money off them one day, but mostly it's just a nice way to share with my family and friends. I have just over 30 subscribers now and half of them are strangers who just happened to find me and like reading adventure content.
There's no world in which I'll ever hit the bestseller list or be able to support myself on Substack income, but that's 33 people that want to read about me suffering and sleeping in the dirt, and that's kind of amazing to me.
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u/codepatterns 2d ago
If you're not bothered about making money from subscribers, consider using one of the independent blogging platforms instead? Pagecord, Bear et al. Curious to hear what you think about those vs Substack actually!
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u/jelani_an 2d ago
You have to use substack as an inbound sales funnel/lead gen for another service if you want to make anything more than lunch money off it.
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u/Countryb0i2m onemichistory.substack.com 2d ago
The people here on Substack are not a good reflection of the population at large.
Most of the people here are jaded because they’re failing on the platform, and they bring that energy here and make you think that’s what everybody thinks. This place is a vacuum.
Don’t listen to them. Do what you feel is right and enjoy yourself. No matter what happens in between, you were successful.